This is a submission for a B/START award. The applicant requests one year of support for studies of the role of peripheral stress hormones (catecholamines) in human memory. Building on a strong base of both animal and human research, this proposal aims to determine for the first time whether catecholamine stress hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) affect long-term memory in humans. Subjects will receive intra-venous injections of one of the hormones (at physiological doses) or of placebo during or after viewing a series of slides. Memory for the slides will be tested in an incidental (surprise) memory test two weeks later. It is predicted that, if adrenergic stress hormones (which are known to be released during emotional situations) affect memory, then memory of the slides should be different in those receiving the stress hormone injections compared to those receiving the placebo injections. As in the animal studies, post-learning injections will be used in some experiments to rule out potential effects of the hormones on non-memory factors like attention. These experiments should provide the strongest evidence to date bearing on the question of whether endogenous stress hormones modulate memory for emotional events. The results will also have implications for the prevention and treatment of disorders of emotional memory, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.